Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/136

120 clothes are gathered up, placed in an earthen vessel, and carried home on the woman's head. Then comes the ironing, if it can be so called, which is done by beating the clothes with two sticks which are very much like a policeman's "billy." The clothes are spread on a flat stone or wrapped about a smooth, round piece of wood and beaten with the sticks till they are not only smooth but have the most beautiful gloss imaginable. When the work is completed, a piece of common cotton has the appearance of fine linen. No one who has spent many nights in Korea can help but recall the whack-et-te-whack, whack-whack, whack-et-te-whack of these ironing sticks which may be heard at all hours of the night. This noise always means that some poor woman is hard at work trying to turn off a little more of her work, which is never done.